Kim Jun-hyung (center), floor leader of the Rebuilding Korea Party, answers reporters' questions at the National Assembly on Wednesday after delivering an impeachment motion against Chief Justice Jo Hee-dae to Democratic Party Floor Leader Han Byung-do. [Yonhap]
Kim Jun-hyung (center), floor leader of the Rebuilding Korea Party, answers reporters' questions at the National Assembly on Wednesday after delivering an impeachment motion against Chief Justice Jo Hee-dae to Democratic Party Floor Leader Han Byung-do. [Yonhap]

A poll released Thursday showed the Rebuilding Korea Party's approval rating has surpassed 9 percent for the first time since the Lee Jae-myung government took office.

In a party approval rating survey conducted by pollster Media Tomato on behalf of News Tomato over two days — Monday and Tuesday — among 1,033 adults aged 18 and older nationwide, the Democratic Party of Korea recorded 36.2 percent and the People Power Party 37.2 percent, keeping the two in a statistical dead heat within the margin of error.

The Rebuilding Korea Party came in at 9.0 percent, followed by the Reform Party at 1.4 percent, the Progressive Party at 1.1 percent, other parties at 2.7 percent, "none" at 11.8 percent, and "don't know" at 0.6 percent.

Compared with the same poll conducted two weeks earlier (Oct. 5-6), the PPP's rating fell 0.4 percentage points and the Democratic Party's fell 0.8 percentage points. The Rebuilding Korea Party's rating rose 1.6 percentage points from two weeks prior, crossing the 9 percent threshold for the first time since the Lee government took office.

Among centrist voters, the Democratic Party led with 36.3 percent against the PPP's 30.6 percent. Among conservatives, the PPP dominated at 73.4 percent compared with 10.8 percent for the Democratic Party. Among progressive voters, the Democratic Party stood at 61.2 percent, the Rebuilding Korea Party at 17.8 percent, and the PPP at 11.6 percent. The Rebuilding Korea Party's support among progressive voters rose 7.0 percentage points from the two-week-prior survey.

The survey was conducted via automated response system using random-digit dialing on mobile phones. The margin of error is plus or minus 3.0 percentage points at a 95 percent confidence level. For more details, visit the National Election Survey Deliberation Commission website.


bigroot@heraldcorp.com